Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced new programs, partnerships, grant awards and an additional $10 million in funding to expand the markets for organic products and help producers transition to organic production. These programs will support the development of new and better markets for domestic organic products, provide hands-on training to producers transitioning to organic production and ease the financial burden of obtaining organic certification. 

“Offsetting the costs for organic transition helps more farmers realize higher margins sooner while giving consumers more access to high-demand organic products,” Secretary Vilsack said. “The partnerships and technical support we offer will ease the transition for producers, and the investments in grant projects we are announcing today will reduce the organic industry’s reliance on imports, lower cost barriers for businesses transitioning to organic, and address crucial infrastructure needs. Together, these resources ensure small and mid-sized producers can gain access to new, profitable markets and further our commitment to maximize American farmers’ share of the food dollar.”

MA’O Organic Farms is one of the recipients of this funding, operating as Waianae Community Re-Development Corporation, in Waianae, Hawaii. Waianae Community Re-Development Corporation will maximize processing capabilities within MA’O Organic Farms’ newly constructed wash-pack facility by introducing product inventory management and food safety technologies, supporting MA’O’s ability to handle 10 times more products while maintaining and eventually increasing product inventory and throughput of organic produce to ensure products are distributed to a greater diversity of market segments.

Additionally, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) encourages organic and transitioning producers to apply for assistance through its conservation programs.

“Organic standards are closely aligned with NRCS conservation practices, so producers transitioning to organic are a natural fit for us,” said J.B. Martin, director of NRCS in the Pacific Islands Area. “These new partnerships will enable us to raise our organic proficiency so we can better assist producers with organic transition.”

Developing new and better markets for domestic organic producers

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) awarded approximately $24.8 million for 23 grant projects through the Organic Market Development Grant (OMDG) program. These projects will support the development of new and existing organic markets to increase the consumption of domestic organic agricultural products. The projects funded through this program so far, are anticipated to benefit more than 49,000 producers and over 118 million consumers by increasing organic market opportunities.

AMS has awarded a total of $75.2 million to 93 projects across the nation through the Organic Market Development Grant program to increase the availability and demand for domestically produced organic agricultural products and to address the need for additional market paths. 

USDA has made an additional $10 million available through the program. Awards for this funding will be selected from the existing applicants and will be announced this summer. This round of awards is for the market development and promotion, simplified equipment-only, and processing capacity expansion project types and is funded by the Commodity Credit Corporation.

A full list of awarded projects is available on the OMDG webpage.